Leopards in their labyrinths

Crooked Cats is a fascinating, and occasionally entertaining, micro-study of all aspects of the big-cat-human encounter

Crooked Cats: Beastly Encounters in the Anthropocene

Author: Nayanika Mathur

Publisher:  HarperCollins

Pages: 208

Price: Rs 499

By some coincidence, Crooked Cats arrived for review just as the Residents’ Welfare Organisation circulated a WhatsApp warning to protect ourselves and our pet dogs because of a leopard sighting at a neighbouring sector that houses some of India’s most expensive real estate. The commentary that followed was predictable: That the cat had “strayed” from its habitat and the forest department should trap and release it back into the receding Aravalli jungles — as though animals have a developed notion of habitable boundaries set by humans. It